500 tires go up in flames at a store south of Everett

EVERETT — An estimated 500 tires burned early Monday morning when a two-alarm fire damaged a tire store and home south of Everett.

At its peak, roughly 40 firefighters from five agencies battled the blaze.

The fire occurred in the 13600 block of Highway 99 just north of the Mukilteo Speedway, said Leslie Hynes, a spokeswoman for South Snohomish Fire & Rescue. The store is behind a Shell gas station.

A storage building with bins full of tires extended from the store to near the house.

A man inside the home when the fire broke out was able to escape safely, Hynes said. The fire damaged two rooms and a part of the home’s attic.

The back of the store also sustained damage.

The fire was fiercest in the area between the store and the home.

“We went defensive right from the start,” Hynes said.

Firefighters deployed an aerial ladder truck behind a Dollar Tree store to protect a nearby strip mall.

Foam was sprayed onto the hundreds of tires in efforts to contain the fire. Afterward, the foam was widespread, giving the appearance of an early snowfall.

The fire agency reported the use of foam to the state Department of Ecology, which sent a team of its own to have the foam sucked out of storm drains to keep it from reaching Lake Stickney.

An investigator from the Snohomish County Fire Marshal’s Office was on the scene Monday afternoon to try to determine the cause and origin of the fire. No damage estimate was immediately available.

Monday’s fire brought back memories of a much larger event.

In September 1984, roughly 4 million tires caught fire in Everett. They were kept on a 10-acre recycling storage site near the Snohomish River. The fire smoldered well into May 1985.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.